System and method for tracking and establishing a progressive discount based upon customer visits to a retail establishment

ABSTRACT

Methods, computer readable media and apparatus are disclosed for determining and applying a discount for a customer. In some embodiments, the process includes receiving transaction data that represents a current transaction, receiving a customer identifier of a customer, determining a current transaction time and a last transaction time, determining that a duration between the last transaction time and the current transaction time equals or exceeds a predetermined time period, and determining that the current transaction is a first instance of the customer equaling or exceeding the predetermined time period. Since it was the first time the customer equaled or exceeded the predetermined time period, a discount is applied to the current transaction.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/173,977, filed Jul. 16, 2008, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR TRACKING AND ESTABLISHING A PROGRESSIVE DISCOUNT BASED UPON ACUSTOMER'S VISITS TO A RETAIL ESTABLISHMENT”,

which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/668,967,entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRACKING AND ESTABLISHING A PROGRESSIVEDISCOUNT BASED UPON A CUSTOMER'S VISITS TO A RETAIL ESTABLISHMENT”,filed Jan. 30, 2007,

which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/049,297,entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRACKING AND ESTABLISHING A PROGRESSIVEDISCOUNT BASED UPON A CUSTOMER'S VISITS TO A RETAIL ESTABLISHMENT”,filed Mar. 27, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,240,021 on Jul. 3,2007.

The present application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/673,300, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING APROGRESSIVE DISCOUNT FOR A CUSTOMER BASED ON THE FREQUENCY OF THECUSTOMER'S TRANSACTIONS”, filed Feb. 9, 2007; which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/728,226, entitled “METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR DETERMINING A PROGRESSIVE DISCOUNT FOR A CUSTOMER BASED ONTHE FREQUENCY OF THE CUSTOMER'S TRANSACTIONS”, filed Dec. 4, 2003, andissued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,194,423 on Mar. 20, 2007; which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/166,267, entitled“METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING A PROGRESSIVE DISCOUNT FOR ACUSTOMER BASED ON THE FREQUENCY OF THE CUSTOMER'S TRANSACTIONS”, filedon Oct. 5, 1998 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,687,679 B1 on Feb. 3,2004; which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/049,297, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORTRACKING AND ESTABLISHING A PROGRESSIVE DISCOUNT BASED UPON A CUSTOMER'SVISITS TO A RETAIL ESTABLISHMENT filed on Mar. 27, 1998, and issued asU.S. Pat. No. 7,240,021 on Jul. 3, 2007.

The above-referenced applications are incorporated by reference hereinin their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to frequent shopper systems and moreparticularly, to frequent shopper systems that reward loyal customerswith increasing discounts for regularly visiting a retail establishment.

2. Description of the Related Art

The grocery store industry is a lucrative and highly competitive one.There are approximately 75 large supermarket chains in the UnitedStates. The large variety of supermarket chains provides many choicesfrom which to choose from, thus forcing each supermarket chain toaggressively pursue marketing strategies to attract customers and inducecustomer loyalty to their chain. In an attempt to attract consumers, thegrocery store industry has employed a number of different promotions.Despite the supermarkets efforts, customer loyalty is no longer inherentdue to the increased competition.

The conventional methods of attracting and developing customer loyaltyused by a supermarket chain include television and radio advertising topromote their stores. In addition, some stores offer free standinginserts (FSIs), coupons, and loss leaders in order to attract consumers.These strategies, however, erode the gross margin without retaining thestores best customers. Furthermore, weekly advertised specials andcoupons by their very nature only attract customers for a given timeperiod. Since the specials or discounts vary from week to week, there isno guarantee or likelihood that a store will be discounting exactly whatthe consumer is interested in buying every grocery trip. Most consumers,therefore, scan the weekly advertisement of every grocery store in theirarea before doing their weekly grocery shopping and choose to go to thestore that most meets their needs.

Many supermarket chains also have established “superstores” to provideincreased convenience for the customers with at least the intent toattract more consumers. These superstores attempt to provide one-stopshopping for consumers by providing a greater variety of goods andservices typically not found in conventional supermarkets, such asbakeries, video rental, banking services, automotive parts andrecreational equipment. The advantage that these superstores have toattract customers, however, has been tempered by the increasedpopularity of these type of stores among the different supermarketchains.

Another attempt to attract customers is the implementation of a frequentshopper card program. This program provides a customer with a frequentshopper card that is presented at the time of purchase. Presentation ofthe card enables the customer to receive special weekly discounts onspecific items purchased. Essentially, these programs act as a paperlesscoupon redemption system.

The frequent shopper card programs are also used to track a customer'sshopping habits. The frequent shopper card includes a customeridentifier that enables the retailer to identify, record and track afrequent shopper's purchases. The customer's shopping history is thenused to perform targeted marketing functions, such as compiling mailinglists and sending out advertising material or printing out point-of-sale(POS) coupons to the customer.

While the frequent shopper card program may succeed in attracting theconsumer to the store on an occasional basis, the program does notsuccessfully ensure the loyalty of the consumers. Since most stores havea frequent shopper card program, consumers simply acquire one of thesecards for every chain in their area and go to the one that offers thebetter specials on any particular week or is the most convenient at anygiven time. The program does not provide any incentive (i.e., reward orpenalty) for visiting the store on a consistent basis.

With the considerable number of supermarket stores in any given area,there exists a need for systems and processes which provide asupermarket the ability to reward a customer for consistent patronage tothe supermarket and to promote and reinforce the customer's loyalty.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a principle object of the present invention to provide new andimproved systems and methods for retail establishments to rewardcustomer loyalty and encourage a regular frequency of consumer visits byoffering a progressive discount on their purchase.

In accordance with the present invention, a system for determining adiscount for a customer of a retail establishment comprises an inputdevice and a signal processing system. The input device generates anidentifier signal indicative of a customer's identification, and thesignal processing system is responsive to the identifier signal. Thesignal processing system has memory that stores a program. The programdirects the processing system to calculate a second discount based on afirst discount and a predefined time period defined by a date of a lastvisit of the customer to the retail establishment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is described in detail below with reference to thefollowing drawing figures of which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a progressive discount system provided inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a point-of-sale (POS) terminal configuredin accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a point-of-sale (POS) controller configuredin accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a database table referred to as theFREQUENT SHOPPER CARD database in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart that illustrates the operations carried out fordetermining and applying an earned discount to a customer's currentpurchase according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart that illustrates the operations carried out forupdating the earned discount of the customers' records stored in theFREQUENT SHOPPER CARD database according to a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7 is an illustration of another embodiment of a database tablereferred to as the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD database in FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is an illustration of another embodiment of a database tablereferred to as the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD database in FIG. 3;

FIGS. 9A-9C are a flowchart that illustrates alternative operationscarried out for determining and applying an earned discount to acustomer's current purchase, and updating the earned discount of thecustomer's records stored in the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD database at thetime of purchase according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a point-of-sale(POS) controller for a progressive discount system configured inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a database table referred to as the COUPONDISCOUNT database in FIG. 10;

FIGS. 12A-12B are a flowchart that illustrates operations carried outfor determining and applying an earned discount provided on a coupon toa customer's current purchase, and updating records stored in theFREQUENT SHOPPER CARD database for tracking the redemption and issuanceof discount coupons according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention of FIG. 10;

FIG. 13 is a diagram of a discount coupon according to the presentinvention of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of apoint-of-sale (POS) terminal configured in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In accordance with the present invention, there are provided new andimproved systems and methods that enable stores to keep track of theconsumer's visits via their frequent shopper card and provide them witha discount that is incremented by a pre-defined amount if the customervisits at least once in every pre-defined time period. The discount mayonly be incremented once in every pre-defined time period and would benegated if the consumer did not visit at all during the pre-defined timeperiod.

In this section, the present invention is described with regard to thedrawing figures briefly described above.

As such, the following terms are used throughout the remainder of thissection. For purposes of construction, such terms shall have thefollowing meanings:

The terms “item”, “product”, “goods”, and “services”, unless otherwisespecified, are intended to refer to anything sold or offered by aretailer. Accordingly, for purposes of construction, the terms “item”,“product”, “goods” or “services” shall be treated as synonyms.

The terms “store”, “retailer”, “supermarket”, and “retailestablishment”, unless otherwise specified, are intended to refer to anyentity that allows customers to purchase products. Retail establishmentsmay be, for example, a retail store such as a warehouse, a supermarketor grocery store, a department store, or any other retail ormerchandising establishment. Accordingly, for purposes of construction,the terms “store”, “retailer”, “supermarket”, and “retail establishment”shall be treated as synonyms.

The terms “customer”, “consumer” and “shopper”, unless otherwisespecified, are intended to refer to any person, group of people, orother entity that visits or otherwise patronizes a retailer and whopurchases products from the retailer.

The term “purchase”, unless otherwise specified, is intended to refer toany product or group of products that a customer buys from a retailestablishment during a visit.

The aforementioned and defined terms are used below to describe thepreferred embodiments of the present invention. Where appropriate, liketerms are referred to with like reference numerals.

The following paragraphs illustrate the structural and operationalaspects of the present invention. The structural aspects are illustratedfirst and are followed by discussions of the operational aspects.

In terms of structure, reference is now made to FIG. 1. Therein depictedis a block diagram representing a purchasing system 100 for a retailestablishment equipped to record and tally a customer's transaction,apply an appropriate discount to the customer's transaction, anddetermine the customer's discount in accordance with the customer's lastvisit. The purchasing system includes a point of sale (POS) controller102 and a plurality of POS terminals (i.e., POS terminal 1 104, POSterminal 2 106 and POS terminal N 108). POS terminal N 108 is intendedto indicate that purchasing system 100 may include any number of POSterminals. Each POS terminal is in communication with the POS controller102 via a respective data link such as data link 110, data link 112 anddata link 114.

In addition, each POS terminal also communicates with a printer and aninput device. As shown in FIG. 1, printer 1 116 and input device 1 118are coupled to POS terminal 1 104 via data links 120, 122, respectively.Printer 2 124 and input device 2 126 are coupled to POS terminal 2 106via data links 128, 130, respectively. Printer N 132 and input device N134 are coupled to POS terminal N 108 via data links 136, 138,respectively. Printer N 132 and input device N 134 are intended toindicate that the purchasing system may include any number of printersand input devices. Each POS terminal and associated printer and inputdevice are substantially the same and therefore, POS terminal 1 104,printer 1 116 and input device 1 118 are described with theunderstanding that the other POS terminals 106, 108, printers 124, 132and input devices 126, 134 are the same.

A link such as link 110 preferably comprises a network connection and/ora serial connection between POS terminal 1 104 and POS controller 102.For example, link 110 may be a 10 BaseT connection enablingcommunications between POS terminal 1 104 and POS controller 102. Ofcourse, many other forms of communication links may be incorporated intothe actual implementation for the present invention. Such other datalinks may include network connections, wireless connections, radio basedcommunications, telephony based communications, and other network-basedcommunications such as via wide area networks distributed via openarchitectures such as by the Internet.

Referring now to FIG. 2, POS terminal 104 is a data processing systemincluding a central processing unit (CPU) 136, a random access memoryunit (RAM) 138, a read-only memory unit (ROM) 140, and an internal clock142. The POS terminal 104 is adapted to receive data signals from theinput device and process the information in combination with datasignals received from the POS controller 102 via link 110.

Input device 118 generates signals that identify the item beingpurchased and the identity of the customer. Input device 118 may be anoptical scanning device similar to the type found in grocery stores.These scanning devices are capable of reading a coded UPC bar codeprovided on the item to be purchased and a coded UPC bar code providedon a customer's Frequent Shopper Card (not shown) which provides theidentity or account number of the customer. The scanning devicetransmits this coded information to POS terminal 104.

In addition the input device may be adapted to read information storedin a magnetic storage medium (i.e., a magnetic strip) or a smart cardhaving an integrated circuit containing erasable memory.

CPU 136 transmits data across link 110 representative of the items beingpurchased to the POS controller 102 to determine the price of thescanned item. POS terminal 104 receives the price of the item from thePOS controller and transmits data of the name and price of each item toprinter 116 via data link 120. Upon receipt of such data, printer 116prints the information to generate the customer's sales receipt of thetransaction. In addition, POS terminal 104 maintains a subtotal of thetransaction as each purchased item is scanned through input device 118.After the discount is determined by the POS controller 102, according tothe present invention, the POS controller 102 deducts the discount fromthe subtotal and any applicable taxes are then added to generate a totalpurchase amount for the transaction. The POS terminal 104 receives thisinformation and transfers the data to printer 116 for printing on thereceipt that may include the item purchased, item price, manufacturer'scoupon discount, time/date, subtotal of purchase, applicable taxes,progressive discount, total of purchase.

In accordance with the present invention, POS terminal 104 alsotransmits an identifier or account number of the customer to the POScontroller 102, which determines the amount of the discount inaccordance with a discount application program and provides the discountamount to the POS terminal 104. POS terminal 104 completes thetransaction and transmits data representative of the subtotal of thetransaction, the discount, applicable taxes and the final total of thetransaction to printer 116 for printing on the receipt.

Referring to FIG. 3, therein depicted is a block diagram of POScontroller 102 as originally depicted in FIG. 1. The POS controller 102is a data processing system such as a computer-equipped automatic dataprocessing system including a central processing unit (CPU) 144, arandom access memory unit (RAM) 146, a read-only memory unit (ROM) 148,a clock 150, and a data storage device 152. The CPU 144 communicateswith POS terminal 104 via data link 110.

CPU 144 is coupled to the data storage device 152 via a bus 154 or otherwell-known, high-speed data communications vehicle or channel. CPU 144is a computer system of the typical variety adapted to run softwareprograms. Additionally, CPU 144 is configured with communicationsequipment such as telephony communications and network communicationsequipment to communicate with POS terminals such as POS terminal 104.

Data storage device 152 is an appropriate combination magnetic,semiconductor and/or optical memory. Of course, it will be appreciatedthat data storage device 152 may be one that consists of multiple disksub-systems, possibly dispersed geographically and coupled via a networkarchitecture. There is no requirement that data storage sub-system bemaintained in one facility; to the contrary, the volume of informationstored therein may dictate geographical dispersion. Data storage device152 need only be logically addressable as a consolidated data sourceacross a distributed environment, such as a network system. Theimplementation of local and wide-area database management systems toachieve the functionality of data storage device 152 will be readilyunderstood by those skilled in the art.

As noted above, CPU 144 and data storage device 152 are coupled togetherin a conventional way via communications link 154. Communications link154 may be a bus or network architecture as indicated above.Communications link 154 will be readily understood by those skilled inthe art.

The data storage device 152 stores a FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156,a DISCOUNT APPLICATION PROGRAM 158, and DISCOUNT UPDATE PROGRAM 160. TheFREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 maintains a record for each customerincluding information relating to the customers earned discount and thecustomer's last visit to the retail establishment. CPU 144, inaccordance with the DISCOUNT APPLICATION PROGRAM 158, retrieves theearned discount from the customer's record in the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARDDATABASE 156 and applies the earned discount to the customer's currenttransaction. CPU 144 also, in accordance with the DISCOUNT APPLICATIONPROGRAM, records the time and date of the current transaction in thecustomer's record stored in the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156.

At pre-defined time periods (e.g. every two weeks), CPU 144, inaccordance with DISCOUNT UPDATE PROGRAM 160, reviews each customer'srecord in the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 and updates the earneddiscounts accordingly. If a customer has visited the store within thepre-defined time period, the customers discount is increased by apre-defined amount (e.g. 0.5%). If not, the customer's earned discountis reset to zero. For example, the earned discounts for each record inthe FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 were updated on Jan. 1, 1998 andJan. 15, 1998 (assuming a two week pre-defined time period). If afrequent shopper visited the store during this time (i.e., Jan. 10,1998), the customer's earned discount is incremented accordingly. If not(i.e., Dec. 25, 1998), the earned discount is reset to zero.

The following paragraphs describe a preferred embodiment of the FREQUENTSHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 as depicted in database table 162, shown inFIG. 4, that is used in the present invention to record the last visitof a customer to a retail establishment and provide an earned discountto the customer's present transaction. Of course, many changes andalterations may be made to such tables to effectuate certainfunctionality depending on particular design and implementation details.Such changes and alterations will be apparent to those skilled in theart.

Referring now to FIG. 4, therein is a database table 162 for storingrecords relating to a customer's loyalty to a particular establishmentthat maintains a progressive discount system that manages such data.Database 162 (hereinafter referred to as “table 162”) is a preferredimplementation of FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 as originallyillustrated in FIG. 3. Table 162 has a column and row arrangementwhereby columns define fields and rows define records R1-R3 storedaccording to the fields defined by the columns. In table 162 there aresix columns. Such columns store data related to ACCOUNT NUMBER 164,CUSTOMER NAME 166, CUSTOMER ADDRESS 168, CUSTOMER TELEPHONE NUMBER 170,EARNED DISCOUNT 172, and LAST USED 174. In table 162 record R1 containsinformation related to an earned discount assigned to a shopper havingan ACCOUNT NUMBER of 1234567 among other specified data.

Each record R1-R3 is representative of each customer that has a FrequentShopper Card account at the retail establishment. Each record R1-R3maintains the customers present earned discount, in the EARNED DISCOUNTfield 172, and the date and time the customer last purchased goods atthe retail establishment in the LAST USED field 174. For example, withregard to record R1, Joe Smith having an ACCOUNT NUMBER of 1234567presently has an EARNED DISCOUNT of 3.5% and his last purchase at theretail establishment was at 2:43 pm on Jan. 27, 1998. Accordingly, JoeSmith will receive a 3.5% discount of his next purchase provided hisnext purchase is prior to the next update of table 162.

Records R2-R3 have the same record format as record R1 and indicatessimilar information related to other customers that are identified asfrequent shoppers. Accordingly, for purposes of brevity, a detailedreview and discussion of records R2-R3 are omitted.

It is important to note that the structure and arrangement of table 162,including its columns and fields, may change to suit particular designrequirements. Many columns may be added to table 162 to carry outcertain functionality control within a data processing system employinga database table like table 162. Such additions and changes will beapparent to those skilled in the art.

The aforementioned discussions were concerned with the structuralaspects of a preferred embodiment and corresponding components of thepresent invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that the POScontroller 102 and POS terminals 104, 106, 108 of purchasing system 100shown in FIGS. 1-3 and the database table 156 illustrated in FIG. 4 havebeen designed to operate and function together. The flowcharts depictedin FIGS. 5 and 6 and described below, illustrate how such structuresoperate together. In particular, described below are the steps carriedout by purchasing system 100 within a retail establishment to discount acustomer's transaction by a pre-defined percentage and to periodicallyupdate the customer's earned discount.

With the aforementioned comments in mind, reference is now made to FIG.5. Depicted therein is a flowchart that illustrates the steps of apreferred process performed by a data processing system, such aspurchasing system 100, for identifying a frequent shopper and applyingthe appropriate earned discount to the shopper's transaction. Thecomputer programming necessary to carry out many of the functions statedbelow will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art of computerprogramming and will not require undue design and implementation effort.The flow charts of FIGS. 5 and 6 along with the discussions of the samefound herein are sufficient and adequate to enable one skilled in theart to make and use the present invention.

Processing starts at Step S5-1 and proceeds to Steps S5-2 and S5-3 wherethe POS controller 102 receives the account number encoded on theFrequent Shopper Card and the subtotal of the current customer'stransaction from POS terminal 104, respectively. As described above, thecustomer's Frequent Shopper Card, having a UPC coded information, isswiped through input device 118 which scans the encoded information onthe card, including the customer's account number. The encodedinformation is transmitted to POS terminal 104 and provided to the POScontroller 102 accordingly.

Thereafter, processing proceeds to Step S5-4, where CPU 144 retrievesthe customer record R1, identified by the account number in field 164 ofthe FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156.

At Step S5-5, CPU 144 retrieves the discount percentage from the EARNEDDISCOUNT field 172 of the customer's record R1. At Step S5-6, the dollaramount of the discount is calculated by multiplying the percentage ofthe earned discount and the subtotal of the current purchase. At StepS5-7, the dollar amount of the discount is subtracted from subtotal ofthe purchase and, at Step S5-8, the final total of the transaction iscalculated, for example by adding any applicable taxes to the discountedsubtotal calculated in Step S5-7.

At Step S5-9, POS terminal 104 transmits a signal to printer 116 whichprints information relating to the discount of the customer'stransaction onto the sales receipt. This information may include theamount of the discount, the discounted subtotal, applicable taxes andfinal total of the transaction.

At Step S5-10, CPU 144 updates the LAST USED field 174 of the customer'srecord in the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156, as shown in databasetable 162 of FIG. 4, to include the current time and date provided bythe internal time clock 150.

It should be noted that while CPU 144 updates the LAST USED field 172 ofthe customer's record R1 for every visit, the present inventioncontemplates the concept of applying a weight to each visit in order todetermine whether the visit to the retail establishment is sufficient tobe deemed a “true” visit. A “true” visit is defined as a visit that theretail establishment considers to be representative of a loyal customer,not a visit by one who occasionally frequents the retail establishmentto purchase a few items. For example, the discount system would notrecognize a purchase of less than a pre-defined dollar amount (i.e., ten(10) dollars) as a “true” visit to the retail establishment. As aconsequence, the LAST USED field 174 of the database table 162 is notupdated with the date of the current transaction, and therefore mayresult in the customer's earned discount being reset if this visit isthe customer's only visit to the retail establishment within thepre-defined time period.

The concept of applying a weight to a customer's visit may also be usedin determining whether a customer's transaction is discounted. Forexample, the discount system would not discount the current transactionunless the subtotal of the purchase is at least a pre-defined dollaramount (i.e., ten (10) dollars).

Accordingly, the operations carried out in FIG. 5 illustrates steps fordiscounting a loyal customer's purchase in accordance with the discountearned by the customer.

Reference is now made to FIG. 6. Depicted is a flowchart thatillustrates the steps of a preferred process performed by a dataprocessing system, such as purchasing system 100, for updating theEARNED DISCOUNT field 172 of each record R1-R3 of the FREQUENT SHOPPERCARD DATABASE 156 in accordance with the last date, stored in the LASTUSED field 174, that each respective customers has made a purchase atthe retail establishment. The retail establishment executes this processat pre-defined time periods (i.e. every two weeks). One will recognizethat this time period may be set for any desired length of time,however, the time period should be representative of the typicalfrequency that a loyal customer would visit the retail establishment.The computer programming necessary to carry out many of the functionsstated below will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art ofcomputer programming and will not require undue design andimplementation effort.

Processing starts at Step S6-1 and immediately proceeds to Step S6-2where CPU 144 of the POS controller 102 retrieves a customer record fromthe FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 depicted in database table 162 ofFIG. 4. In Step S6-3 the POS controller 102 retrieves the transactiondate from the LAST USED field 174 of the retrieved customer record R1.

Thereafter, processing proceeds to Step S6-4, where CPU 144 compares thelast transaction date of the customer stored in the LAST USED field 174with the date of the previous update of the records of the FREQUENTSHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156. In other words, the previous updatecorresponds to the date that the DISCOUNT UPDATE PROGRAM 160 was lastexecuted. If the customer's last transaction date was before theprevious update of the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156, the EARNEDDISCOUNT field 172, at Step S6-5, is set to zero percent. The harshnessof resetting the earned discount to zero percent is intended to providegreater incentive for the customer to visit the retail establishment ona regular basis. This harshness may be tempered by reducing the earneddiscount in accordance with any number of criteria. For example, theearned discount may be decreased by a pre-defined value each time thecustomer fails to visit the store within the pre-defined time period.Alternatively, the updating process may not penalize the customer aftera first instance in which the customer fails to visit the retailestablishment in the pre-defined period, but instead postpone thepenalty for a subsequent failure. This alternative may be used toprevent a loyal customer who, for instance, may have been away onvacation from being penalized. As one skilled in the art will appreciatethat the penalty for not visiting the retail establishment may bedetermined in a number of different ways.

If, at Step S6-4, the customer's last transaction was after the previousupdate of the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156, the EARNED DISCOUNTfield 172, at Step S6-6, is incremented by a pre-defined percentagevalue (i.e., 0.5%). For example, if the present earned discount is 2.0percent, the earned discount is incremented to 2.5 percent (assuming thepercentage value increment is 0.5%). The earned discount that can beearned by any frequent customer may be limited to a pre-defined percent,such as 5.0%. Once the earned discount has achieved this maximumdiscount value, the earned discount field will not be incremented andwill, at best, remain at the maximum discount value.

At Step S6-7, after the earned discount of a customer's record isupdated, CPU 144 retrieves the next customer record R2 from the FREQUENTSHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156. CPU 144 then updates the EARNED DISCOUNTfield 172 for the next customer record R2 in accordance with Steps S6-3through S6-6. Steps S6-3 to S6-7 are repeated until all of the customerrecords of the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 are updated, at whichtime the update of the database 156 is complete.

Accordingly, by performing the steps of FIG. 6, the earned discountdefined in the EARNED DISCOUNT field 172 of each customer record R1-R3is updated.

It should be noted that while the reward to the loyal customer is adiscount applied to the customer's current transaction, the presentinvention is not so limited. To the contrary, the present inventioncontemplates that the discount may be in the form of a dollars off eachtransaction with the amount of dollars off increasing with continuedloyalty to the retail establishment. Further, instead of the rewardbeing a discount to the customer's transaction, the reward may be inother forms unrelated to the purchase or retail establishment, such asfrequent flier miles, free time for long distance calling, or otherreward incentives.

It should be further noted that while the discount is applied to theentire transaction, the present invention contemplates that the earneddiscount may be applied to a specific item purchased. For example, thediscount system may reward a customer's loyalty to a brand of product.If the customer purchases a defined product within a pre-defined timeperiod, the customer discount is incremented. The customer's discount onthe product will continue to be incremented to a maximum discount value,provided the customer purchases the product within each successivepre-defined time period. If the purchaser fails to purchase the productin the pre-defined time period, the discount may be reset to zeropercent.

Referring now to FIG. 7, therein is a database table 176 for storingrecords R1-R3 relating to a customer's loyalty to a particular productthat is an alternative embodiment of the table 162 of FIG. 4, asdescribed above. Table 176 has a column and row arrangement wherebycolumns define fields and rows define records R1-R3 stored according tothe fields defined by the columns. In table 176 there are seven columns.Such columns store data related to ACCOUNT NUMBER 164, CUSTOMER NAME166, CUSTOMER ADDRESS 168, CUSTOMER TELEPHONE NUMBER 170, EARNEDDISCOUNT 172, DATE LAST USED 174, and DISCOUNT ITEMS 178.

Database table 176 includes the columns of the table 162 of FIG. 4, andtable 176 further includes an additional field 178, DISCOUNT ITEMS, foreach record. The DISCOUNT ITEMS field 178 includes the UPC code numericcode to identify the product and the alphanumeric name of the product.The DISCOUNT ITEMS field 178 identifies the product that receives thediscount stored in the EARNED DISCOUNT field 172. In table 176 record R1contains information related to an earned discount for a DISCOUNT ITEMS178 of DIET PEPSI assigned to a shopper having an ACCOUNT NUMBER 164 of1234567 among other specified data.

Records R2-R3 have the same record format as record R1 and indicatessimilar information related to other customers that are identified asfrequent shoppers. Accordingly, for purposes of brevity, a detailedreview and discussion of records R2 and R3 are omitted.

An alternative embodiment to the process of applying the earned discountand updating the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 is depicted in FIGS.9A-9C. This embodiment updates the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156 inreal time and thereby eliminates the process of updating all the recordsR1-R3 of the database 156 at pre-defined time periods, as described inthe embodiment of FIGS. 1-6. In other words, the earned discount of eachcustomer record R1-R3 of the database 156 is updated accordingly at thetime of each customer transaction. The structure of the system issubstantially the same as that shown in FIGS. 1-4. The data storagedevice 152, shown in FIG. 3, of this embodiment combines the process ofthe DISCOUNT APPLICATION PROGRAM 158 and the DISCOUNT UPDATE PROGRAM160. In addition, the database table 180 of FIG. 8 is an alternativeembodiment of the table 162 (see FIG. 4) as described hereinabove,except table 180 includes an additional field 182, DISCOUNT UPDATED, foreach record R1-R3. The DISCOUNT UPDATED field 182 includes the time anddate that the EARNED DISCOUNT field 172 was last changed. The datastored in DISCOUNT UPDATED field 182 provides the measuring period fordetermining when the earned discount should be changed or remain thesame. The importance and function of the data provided in the DISCOUNTUPDATED field 182 will become apparent in the description of the processof the system as shown in the flowcharts of FIG. 9A-9C.

Each record R1-R3 is representative of a customer that has used aFrequent Shopper Card at the retail establishment. Each record R1-R3maintains the customers present earned discount at field 172, the dateand time the customer last purchased goods at the retail establishmentat field 174, and the date that the earned discount was last updated atfield 182. For example, with regard to record R1, Joe Smith having anACCOUNT NUMBER of 1234567 presently has an EARNED DISCOUNT of 3.5%, hislast purchase at the retail establishment was at 2:43 pm on Jan. 27,1998, and the EARNED DISCOUNT field was last updated (from 3.0% to 3.5%,assuming an increment of 0.5%) at 8:21 pm on Jan. 14, 1998.

The flowcharts depicted in FIGS. 9A-9C illustrate the process ofupdating and applying the earned discount of the system shown in FIGS.1-3 and 7 at the time of the customer's transaction.

With the aforementioned comments in mind, reference is now made to FIG.9A. Depicted is a flowchart that illustrates the steps of a preferredprocess performed by a data processing system, such as purchasing system100, for discounting a customers transaction and updating the customer'searned discount in real time in accordance with the loyalty of thecustomer to the retail establishment. The computer programming necessaryto carry out the functions described below will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art. The flowcharts of FIGS. 9A-9C along with thediscussions of the same found herein after are sufficient and adequateto enable one skilled in the art of computer programming to make and usethe present invention.

Processing starts at Step S9-1 and immediately proceeds to Step S9-2 andS9-3 where the POS controller 102 receives the subtotal of thecustomer's transaction, and the account number in field 164 encoded onthe Frequent Shopper Card from POS terminal 104.

Thereafter, processing proceeds to Step S9-4, where CPU 144 retrievesthe customer record R1, identified by the account number in field 164,from the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156.

At Step S9-5, CPU 144 retrieves the transaction date from the LAST USEDfield 174 of the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156.

Thereafter, processing proceeds to Step S9-6, where CPU 144 compares thedate of the current transaction with the transaction date from the LASTUSED 174 field of the database 156. If the current transaction date ismore than a first pre-defined time period (i.e. two weeks) after thetransaction date from the LAST USED field 174 of the database, CPU 144sets the discount from the EARNED DISCOUNT field 172 of the customer'srecord R1 to zero percent (0%) at Step S9-7. At Step S9-11, the time anddate of the current transaction is recorded in the DISCOUNT UPDATED andLAST USED fields 180, 174, respectively, of the customer's record R1 inthe FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156.

At Step S9-6, if the current transaction date is less than the firstpre-defined time period after the transaction date from the LAST USEDfield 174 of the database, the transaction date from the DISCOUNTUPDATED field 182 of the database, at Step S9-8, is retrieved.

At Step S9-9, the date of the current transaction is compared to thetransaction date from the DISCOUNT UPDATED field 182 of the FREQUENTSHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156. This step is to determine whether thecustomer's current transaction is later than a second pre-defined timeperiod (i.e. two weeks) since the last time the EARNED DISCOUNT field172 has been updated. If so, the customer's discount is incremented. Ifnot, the customer's discount remains the same.

Accordingly, if the current transaction date, at Step S9-9, is laterthan the second pre-defined period after the transaction date of theDISCOUNT UPDATED field 182, a pre-defined increment, at Step S9-10 isadded to the EARNED DISCOUNT field 172 of the database. At Step S9-11,the time and date of the current transaction is recorded in the DISCOUNTUPDATED and LAST USED fields 182, 174, respectively, of the customer'srecord R1 in the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156. This stepeffectively resets the time period (i.e., two weeks) for updating theearned discount.

At Step S9-9, if the current transaction date is less than the secondpre-defined time period (i.e., two weeks) after the transaction date ofthe DISCOUNT UPDATE field 182 of the database, the EARNED DISCOUNT andDISCOUNT UPDATE fields 182, 174, respectively, remains unchanged, andthe time and date of the current transaction is recorded in the LASTUSED field 174 of the customer's record R1 in the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARDDATABASE 156.

At Step S9-13 after the EARNED DISCOUNT, DISCOUNT UPDATED and LAST USEDfields 172, 174, 182, respectively, of the customer's record R1 isupdated, the discount percentage from the EARNED DISCOUNT field of thecustomer's record is retrieved. At Step S9-14, the dollar amount of thediscount is calculated by multiplying the percentage of the earneddiscount and the subtotal of the current transaction. At Step S9-15, thedollar amount of the discount is subtracted from subtotal of the currenttransaction and at Step S9-16, the final total of the transaction iscalculated, for example by adding any applicable taxes to the discountedsubtotal calculated in Step S9-15.

At Step S9-17, POS terminal 104 transmits a signal to printer 116 whichin turn prints information relating to the discount to the customer'stransaction onto the sales receipt. This information may include theamount of discount, the discounted subtotal, the applicable taxes andthe final total of the transaction.

Accordingly, FIGS. 9A-9C illustrate steps that are carried out accordingto the present invention to discount a loyal customer's purchase inaccordance with the discount earned by the customer, and to update theearned discount of each individual customer.

The following description provides an example of the process illustratedin FIGS. 9A-9C in reference to the customer records R1-R3 shown in FIG.8. First, it is assumed that date of the current transaction is Feb. 1,1998, the pre-defined time period to update the earned discount is twoweeks, and the pre-defined discount increment is 0.5%. For record R1having an ACCOUNT NUMBER of 1234567, the EARNED DISCOUNT would beincrement from 3.0% to 3.5% because Joe Smith's last transaction wasless than two weeks ago and the last discount update was longer than twoweeks ago. Further, both the DISCOUNT UPDATED and LAST USED fields 182,174, respectively would be updated to Feb. 1, 1998. For record R2 havingan ACCOUNT NUMBER of 1234568, the EARNED DISCOUNT would be reset from0.5% to 0.0% because Jane Doe's last transaction was more than two weeksago. Further, both the DISCOUNT UPDATED and LAST USED fields 182, 174,respectively, would be updated to Feb. 1, 1998. For record R3 having anACCOUNT NUMBER of 1234569, the EARNED DISCOUNT would remain at 1.0%because John Jones' last transaction and the previous discount updatewere both less than two weeks ago. Further, only the data of the LASTUSED field 174 would be updated to Feb. 1, 1998.

Another embodiment of the POS Controller 102 of a purchasing system 100is illustrated in FIG. 10 wherein the discount is offered in the form ofa coupon 183 (similar to that shown in FIG. 13). This system 100eliminates the need to provide a record R1 of each customer as requiredin the previous embodiments of the present invention. The structuralfeatures of the purchasing system 100 that issues discount coupons 183to loyal customers are substantially similar to the embodiment of thepresent invention described in connection with FIGS. 1-3, with theexception that the data storage device 152 does not include a FREQUENTSHOPPER CARD DATABASE 156. This embodiment may, however, include aCOUPON DISCOUNT DATABASE 184 which records data relating to the issuanceand redemption of coupons to track the success of the redemption of thecoupons 183.

Referring now to FIG. 11, database table 186 (hereinafter referred to as“table 186”) is a preferred implementation of COUPON DISCOUNT DATABASE184 as originally illustrated in FIG. 10. Table 186 has a column and rowarrangement whereby columns define fields and rows define records R1-R6stored according to the fields defined by the columns. In table 186there are eight columns shown. The columns store data related to RECORDIDENTIFIER 190, EARNED DISCOUNT 192, ISSUE DATE 194, TOTAL # ISSUED 196,TOTAL # REDEEMED 198, REDEEM DATE 1 200, REDEEM DATE 2 202 and REDEEMDATE N 204. Field REDEEM DATE N 204 is intended to indicate that table186 may include any number of REDEEM DATE fields. In table 186 recordR1, identified by a RECORD IDENTIFIER of “1”, contains informationrelated to the coupons 183 issued on Jan. 1, 1998 having an earneddiscount value of 0.5%.

Each record R1-R6 is representative of the information relating to theredemption and issuance of coupons 183 issued on a given date stored inISSUE DATE field 194 having a common discount value stored in EARNEDDISCOUNT field 192. Each record R1-R6 maintains the total number ofcoupons 183 issued on the given day, stored in the

TOTAL # ISSUED field 196 having a common earned discount value, and thetotal number of these coupons that were redeemed, stored in the TOTAL #REDEEMED field 198, and the total number of coupons redeemed on eachdate, stored in the respective REDEEM DATE fields 200, 202, 204. Forexample, with regard to record R1, thirty-two (32) coupons having a 0.5%discount value were issued on Jan. 1, 1998. Of the thirty-two (32)coupons issued, three (3) coupons were redeemed on date 1, eleven (11)coupons were redeemed on date 2 and zero (0) coupons redeemed on date N.

Records R2-R6 have the same record format as record R1 and indicatessimilar information relating to the total number of coupons of aspecific discount value that were issued on a given day and informationrelating to the redemption of these coupons. Accordingly, for purposesof brevity, a detailed review and discussion of records R2-R6 isomitted.

The relationship of table 186 to other data processing systems anddatabases utilized in the preferred embodiment will be clear from thedescription regarding FIGS. 12A-12B. It is important to note, however,that the structure and arrangement of table 186, including its columnsand fields, may change to suit particular design requirements. Manycolumns may be included in table 186 to carry out certain functionalityand control within a data processing system employing a database tablelike table 186. Such additions and changes will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art.

The aforementioned descriptions were concerned with the structuralaspects of the preferred embodiments and corresponding components of thepresent invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that the POScontroller 102, POS terminal 104, input device 118 and printer 116 ofFIGS. 2 and 10 and the database table 186 illustrated in FIG. 11 operateand function together. The flowcharts depicted in FIGS. 12A and 12B anddescribed below illustrate how such structures operate together. Inparticular, described below are the steps carried out by purchasingsystem 100 within a retailer to redeem a discount coupon 183 and issueanother wherein the discount value of the new coupon is determined inaccordance with the loyalty of the customer to the retail establishment.

With the aforementioned comments in mind, reference is now made to FIGS.12A and 12B. Depicted therein is a flowchart that illustrates the stepsof a process performed by a data processing system, such as purchasingsystem 100 as depicted in FIGS. 2 and 10, for redeeming a discountcoupon and issuing a new coupon in accordance with the loyalty of thecustomer to the retail establishment. The computer programming necessaryto carry out many of the functions stated below will be readily apparentto those skilled in the art.

Processing starts at Step S12-1 and immediately proceeds to Step S12-2where the coupon bar code 206 (described in detail in FIG. 13) isscanned by input device 118 as the coupon 183 is swiped therethrough.Input device 118 then transmits the encoded bar code to POS terminal104. The POS controller 102 then receives the bar code from POSterminal. In Step S12-3, the POS controller 102 decodes the coupon barcode 206 to identify the coupon 183 as a progressive discount coupon byan encoded identifier.

Thereafter, processing proceeds to Step S12-4, where CPU 144 retrievesthe issue date of the coupon 183 provided in the bar code on the coupon,and, in Step S12-5 compares the issue date of the coupon with thepresent transaction date. If the time period therebetween is greaterthan a pre-defined time period (i.e., 2 weeks), the coupon, at StepS12-6, is deemed to have expired and a message is provided to thecustomer. At Step S12-7, the earned discount is set to zero percent.

If the determined time period is within the pre-defined time period, theearned discount that is encoded on the coupon 183 and provided in thebar code 206 is received at Step S12-8.

At Step S12-9, the dollar amount of the discount is calculated bymultiplying the percentage of the earned discount and the subtotal ofthe current transaction provided to POS terminal 104. At Step S12-10,the dollar amount of the discount is subtracted from subtotal of thecurrent transaction, and at Step S12-11, the final total of thetransaction is calculated, for example by adding any applicable taxes tothe discounted subtotal calculated in Step S12-10.

At Step S12-12, POS terminal 104 transmits a signal to printer 116,which in turn prints information relating to the discount to thecustomer's transaction onto the sales receipt. This information mayinclude the amount of discount, the discounted subtotal, the applicabletaxes and the final total of the transaction.

At Step S12-13, the earned discount value of the new coupon 183 isdetermined. A process for determining the new coupon value isillustrated in FIGS. 9A-9C at Steps S9-8 to S9-10. The encoded data onthe coupon 183 would include a date when the earned discount value ofthe coupon was last changed, similar to the date stored in the DISCOUNTUPDATED field 182 of Table 180 of FIG. 8. If the time period between thecurrent transaction and the transaction when the earned discount waslast changed is greater than a pre-defined time period (e.g., 2 weeks),the earned discount is increased by a pre-determined increment (e.g.,0.5%). If not, the earned discount remains the same as the currentcoupon value. For expired coupons, the coupon is reset to be apre-defined discount (e.g., 0.5%).

Another process for determining the earned discount value would be toincrease the current earned discount by a predetermined amount each timea coupon is redeemed within a predefined time period. For example, acoupon currently having an earned discount of 2.5% will be increased to3.0% (assuming the pre-defined amount is 0.5%). For expired coupons, thecoupon value of 0.0% would be increased to 0.5%.

At Step S12-14, a new coupon is issued to the customer. The coupon maybe a paper form that is issued by a point of pickup unit which may beone similar to an automatic coupon dispensers commonly found in grocerystores. In this way, a customer can immediately receive another couponfor immediate use. Of course, coupons could also be mailed or sent viaother communication vehicles such as electronic mail and via theInternet to a particular customer. Furthermore, the coupons could evenbe printed at the bottom of the sales receipts.

Thereafter, at Step S12-15 the POS controller 102 retrieves the redeemedcoupon's record R2 in the COUPON DISCOUNT DATABASE 184 according to theissue date and the discount value of the coupon. For example, referringto FIG. 11, the POS controller 102 would retrieve record R2 having aRECORD IDENTIFIER value of “2” for a redeemed coupon having an EARNEDDISCOUNT of 1.0% that was issued on Jan. 1, 1998.

At Step S12-16, the TOTAL # REDEEMED and appropriate REDEEM DATE fields198, 200, 202, 204, respectively, of the originally issued record areincremented by one. Again using record R2 as an example, TOTAL # ISSUEDfield 196 and appropriate redeem date (assuming REDEEM DATE 1 200) areincremented from “37” to “38” and from “4” to “5”, respectively.

At Step S12-17, the record R6 for the newly issued coupon 183 isretrieved from the COUPON DISCOUNT DATABASE 184 according to the issuedate and discount value of the new coupon. For example, POS controller102 would receive record R6 having a RECORD IDENTIFIER value of “6” fora new coupon and a new earned discount value of 1.0% that was issued onJan. 2, 1998.

At Step S12-16, the TOTAL # ISSUED field 196 of the newly issued recordR6 is incremented by one. Again using record R6 as an example, TOTAL #ISSUED is incremented from “79” to “80”.

Accordingly, the operations carried out in FIGS. 12A and 12B illustratethe steps that are carried out according to the present invention todiscount a loyal customer's purchase in accordance with the discountcoupon earned by the customer, and updating and issuing another discountcoupon to the customer.

Referring now to FIG. 13, therein depicted is a discount coupon 183representative of the percentage discount the customer will receive offhis next purchase at the retail establishment. In particular, the coupon183 provides a discount of 5% off the customer's next purchase at ABCgrocer, provided the visit is made between the dates of Jan. 8, 1998 andJan. 15, 1998 along with the incentive that redemption of the couponwithin the defined time period will result in an even higher discount.Otherwise, the discount coupon is invalid.

Additionally, the coupon 183 includes an identification number 206corresponding to the coupon identifier and among other information. Thatitem number may be in the form of a UPC or other bar code, or may be astring of alpha and/or numeric characters that are to be scanned orkeyed into an input device. The bar code may include an identifier, theissue date of the coupon, the discount value of the coupon, last date acoupon was used, and the previous date the earned discount value waschanged. This type of information could be encoded using the UCC/EANcode 128. Code 128 is a bar code that uses various compressiontechniques and is capable of encoding the full ASCII character set andencoding data can be of any length. Alternatively, the information onthe coupon may be encoded using a two-dimensional (“2D”) bar codeformat. The 2D bar code format enables a substantial amount ofinformation to be provided on the coupon in a very small area.

The embodiment of the present invention illustrated by FIGS. 10-13provides a coupon including the data used to apply a discount and issuea new coupon in accordance with the date of the customer's last visit.One skilled in the art, however, will appreciate that the data encoded(i.e., identifier, discount, issue date, etc.) on the coupon may bestored within an alternate embodiment of the FREQUENT SHOPPER CARDDATABASE as shown in FIGS. 4, 7 and 8. In this alternative, the couponmay simply include an identifier, such as an account number, to retrievea customer's record in the database. The identifier may be a pointerwhich is used to access the appropriate record in the database.

The POS controller 102 then retrieves and updates the data stored in therecord identified by the coupon. The coupon value (earned discount) forall records may be simultaneously updated periodically, as illustratedin FIG. 6, or each coupon value may be updated individually at the timeof each customer's visit as illustrated in FIGS. 9A-9C.

Referring to FIG. 14, another embodiment of a POS terminal 210 includesa control device 212 which is in communication via a communicationmedium 214 with a system 216 for printing receipts and/or coupons. Thecontrol device 212 comprises a processor 218 that is in communicationwith an input device 220 and a display device 222. The system 216 forprinting comprises a processor 224 in communication with a storagedevice 226 and a printer 228. In this embodiment, the control device 212may be a cash register, and the system 216 may be an electronic devicefor printing coupons in accordance with data received from the cashregister. Other configurations of POS terminals will be understood bythose skilled in the art.

Accordingly, having fully described the present invention by way ofexample with reference to the attached drawing figures, it will bereadily appreciated that many changes and modifications may be made tothe invention and to any of the exemplary embodiments shown and/ordescribed herein without departing from the spirit or scope of theinvention which is defined in the appended claims.

1. A method, comprising: receiving transaction data that represents acurrent transaction; receiving a customer identifier of a customerparticipating in the current transaction; determining a currenttransaction time and a last transaction time associated with thecustomer; determining that a duration between the last transaction timeand the current transaction time equals or exceeds a predetermined timeperiod; determining that the current transaction comprises a firstinstance of the customer equaling or exceeding the predetermined timeperiod; determining a discount that was applied to the last transactionassociated with the customer; and applying the discount to the currenttransaction.